Fortress Investment Group is offering the Mt. Gox victims to buy their Bitcoin claims, according to a Coindesk report.
The New York-based private equity company is sending letters to the creditors of the doomed crypto exchange, asking them to sell their claims for $900 per Bitcoin. Per the June 8 report, the letter signed by Michael Hourigan, a managing director of the firm.
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A good deal for the creditors?
Compared to the market value, Fortress is only offering 7.1 percent to the creditors. As of press time, Bitcoin is trading at $12,590 apiece, according to Coinmarket.com, after gaining 8.5 percent in the last 24 hours.
Hourigan, however, claims that the offering is fair to both the creditors and Fortress.
“We review each claim individually but are now generally able to offer $900 per BTC claim, or roughly 200% of the bankruptcy value (which was $451 per BTC claim). We can pay that in Bitcoin, or any fiat currency of your choice. Our payment would be made within 10 business days of the claim transfer confirmation,” the offer letter to the creditors noted.
Fall of a crypto giant
In late 2011, Mt. Gox, then the largest Bitcoin exchange in terms of trading volume, was hacked, resulting in the theft of 850,000 Bitcoins, then worth around $400 million. This created a dent on the books and business of the exchange which finally forced it to shut its trading operations in 2014.
Though the exchange entered into bankruptcy after its fall, its status changed to civil rehabilitation last year, and a trustee was appointed to handle the claims and refund to the victimized creditors.
However, the case is still pending before the Tokyo District Court, and the refund process is still ongoing. The appointed trustee, himself, is a controversial figure and was criticized many times for moving huge amount of Bitcoin to the exchanges for liquidation, affecting the market price of the coin.
Fortress is one of the well-known firms operating in the crypto investment market. Its former CIO Michael Novogratz is running his own crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, after parting from the company.
Acquired by SoftBank in 2017, the firm reportedly bought $20 million worth Bitcoin in 2013, when the coin was trading at fraction of its current market value.
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